The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to nanostructures and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to peptide nanostructures.
Peptide nanostructures and various applications thereof are described in International Patent Application, Publication Nos. WO2004/052773, WO2004/060791, WO2005/000589, WO2006/027780 and WO2006/013552, all assigned to the same assignee as the present application and being incorporated by reference by their entirety.
Generally, peptide nanostructures can posses many ultrastructural and physical similarities to carbon nanotubes. Known peptide nanostructures are made by self assembly of aromatic dipeptides, such as diphenylalanine. The assembled dipeptides form ordered assemblies of various structures with persistence length on the order of micrometers.
For industrial applications, self-assembled peptide nanostructures are favored over carbon nanotubes from standpoint of cost, production means and availability. Additionally, peptides nanostructures can be used as organic building blocks for bio-nanotechnology owing to their biocompatibility, chemical flexibility and versatility, biological recognition abilities and facile synthesis [Reches, M. and Gazit, E. Casting metal nanowires within discrete self-assembled peptide nanotubes. Science 300, 625-627 (2003)].
Peptide nanostructures have been proposed to be used in various technological applications, such as microelectronics, magnetic recording systems, chemical sensors, displays systems, memory media, electron-emission lithography and thermoelectric systems.